State To Reopen S.r. 419 Next Week

WINTER SPRINGS — State Road 419, a popular route between State Road 434 and U.S. Highway 17-92, is expected to reopen next week, a state Department of Transportation engineer said.

Workers are finishing paving the road, engineer Lee Rush said. The highway has been closed since September.

He said shoulder work still must be done, but it will not affect traffic. Workers also will fill nearby ditches, which have eroded during construction, he said.

Poor driving conditions and accidents prompted the state to rebuild the two-lane road, enlarging it from 20 feet to the standard 24 feet, Rush said. Each shoulder was expanded from about 4 feet to 10 feet.

Oak trees, which had bordered part of the road, were removed to improve safety and guardrails were added in spots, he said.

The work was expected to be completed in February, but engineers redesigned 400 feet of the 2.4-mile asphalt road after they discovered large amounts of water under it, he said.